THE smell from a Burnley landfill site was so bad it caused locals to vomit and gave environmental officers headaches, a court heard.

Now a waste company has been fined £33,500 and ordered to pay more than £10,000 in costs for a string of offences.

Shanks Waste Services, the operator of Burnley's Deerplay landfill site, was charged after the Environment Agency (EA) told Blackburn magistrates about a catalogue of problems.

The agency had investigated after complaints from residents on in 2002, about offensive smells and dust.

Shanks pleaded guilty to one charge of failing to comply with a condition of the waste management licence, which states the company must spray the site to keep the dust under control.

Shanks was also convicted of a further seven offences it had denied during the hearing.

On August 1, 2002, a resident on a farm complained there were offensive smells coming from the site, with two more similar calls the following week.

Agency officers investigated and on one occasion the smell was strong enough to give an officer a headache - and was noticeable 500 metres away.

A local resident also told an officer the smell had made her vomit several times.

Investigators found a series of problems on site, including foul-smelling loads of domestic waste that were not covered quickly enough, allowing odours to escape.

The also saw that odour control systems were not always working. Leachate, a liquid generated as waste rots, was seen collecting in pools - although the site licence requires leachate be drained away and re-circulated to avoid smells.

The EA also discovered animal waste that was exposed.

Shanks Waste was then a subsidiary of Caird Environmental Ltd, which held a licence for the site.

In July this year, the firm was bought out by Waste Recycling Group and has changed its name to WRG Waste Services.